Bitter Past
by Lapush-limitato
Summary: Alice slowly remembers her human life. The effects of her therapy start to wear of and the memories come flooding back but will it strip away the happy persona she has?


_I was born in 1901, Biloxi, Mississippi._

_Or, you could say I was born in 1920._

_The life I have now is far different from the one back then, of what I can remember. Here is my life; and open book, like all of you are to me._

The light filtered in through the window and brought me from my slumber. It pained me to look straight at it. Mother had pulled open the curtains to wake me up. Cynthia was already toddling around. She was dressed and was just waiting to be fed. Mother was perched on the edge of my bed with a smile on her face. She brushed my hair from my face and left her hand on my cheek.  
"Morning Alice."

She bent down to kiss my forehead.  
"Morning mother. Is father back?" She shook her head, there was a brief look of sadness on her face. She always hated it when father went away. She was left to look after me and Cynthia and the orchard and the house. It was too much work for one woman but I always tried to help out when I could. I would try to cook with her but I would always be in her way and she would get frustrated and send me outside.

"When will he be back?"  
"In a few days sweetheart." I nod and sit up in my bed.  
"There is water in the tub, get a wash and dressed. Your breakfast will be on the table in 10." I nod and stretch and then slip out of bed and make my way to the bathroom. I sit in the cold metal tub and scrub my skin clean. I dip my head back into the water and wet my hair. It falls back against my back as I pull myself from the tub and wrap myself in a towel. I get dressed and meet my mother and sister in the kitchen. Cynthia already has food on her face and giggles as I walk in. I grab a cloth and wipe her face gently.  
"It goes in your mouth, not on your face." I smile and ruffle her hair. She looks a lot like me. Brown hair, big brown eyes, we have the same nose. I walked over to the counter were my mother stood and looked up at her. She had a funny look on her face, like she had smelt something bad, it was almost like a snarl was going to rip through her.  
"Whats wrong mother?" I asked, my voice quiet but high.  
"Oh nothing, sweetheart. Nothing for you to worry about." She handed me my breakfast and told me to go and eat. I obliged and scraped my chair along the wooden floorboards as I pulled it back against the table. I began to eat slowly. Something was wrong with mother and there was no way she was going to tell me. I dismissed it for the time and thought nothing of it.

Not until father returned home that night. He was acting just as weird. I was sat in the front room a book in my hands and Cynthia by my side. She was sucking her thumb, something she wasn't allowed to usually do but if mother and father weren't going to see her, I wasn't going to stop her. It soothed her, I wasn't going to take that away from her. I continued reading to her until she fell asleep and then carried her up to her room and put her to bed, like I did every night. Mother liked to look after Cynthia and she did most of the looking after but not when father was around, she didn't have the time. They were a happy couple but there would be the odd argument here and there. Usually about myself. I began to walk downstairs when I heard their raised voices. I sat on the top step and listened.  
"Why do you think she isn't invited anywhere? She is a freak."  
"Why would you say that about your own daughter Marcus?"  
"She is Frankie. I don't know why you take all this rubbish about seeing things. Just because she is prone to guessing correctly. She isn't seeing anything Frankie. I can tell you that."

I heard him move towards the door so I shot to my room and pretended to be reading in my room. He walked in, his hands buried deep in his pockets and his head hung low. I looked up from the book and smiled at him.  
"Hey daddy." I was laying it on thick. I hated calling him that but it kept him sweet. I knew how he could be when he was angry.  
"How are you angel? You miss me?"

I nodded and he sat down on my bed and hugged me.  
"Hey Alice. Are you upset that you didn't get invited to Mary Elizabeth's birthday party today?"

I shrugged and closed my book. I had forgot all about it. She used to be my best friend, until people heard that I could predict things. They began to think I was weird, an odd child.  
"I'm kind of used to it now. I haven't been invited anywhere for a while father."

He nodded slightly and looked back at me with a serious look on his face. His features were cold and hard and there was no denying that he was angry.  
"I don't want you to speak of your 'gift' anymore okay, Alice?" I swallowed hard and fought back the annoyance that was pulling at me.  
"Yes father."  
"Good, you get some sleep now. Okay?" I nodded and he tucked me in. He pulled the sheets up to my chin and kissed my forehead. He left without saying goodnight. That was the last time he bothered to tuck me in.

I was forced to walk to and from school every day. It was a boring and a long walk. It wasn't even really much of a school. There was one teacher who taught a class of 20, each of varying ages. She just stood in front of the class and told us stories about her past. It was dull and I almost always fell asleep. That would only give the girls another thing to tease me about. Mother said they were jealous but I knew that wasn't true. They were blonde and had big blue eyes and didn't get visions. I was the complete opposite. After I started predicting what the teacher would say they started to tease me more.

School eventually finished at 3 o'clock. I collected my belongings and began my long and tedious walk home. The sun was shining today so I didn't bother carrying a coat. The other children had to carry their coats on their walks home but I had known that morning that the clouds would pass and the sun would shine. I had to walk at least 20 minutes with the girls behind me every day. The boys would sometimes join in. They would be the brave ones who would come up behind me and pull at my pigtails or ask me to predict their future and hold out their palms.

This day was different though. They were being more physical. I escaped from the hot, stuffy room, into an equally stuffy environment. The sun was beating down hard and within 5 minutes sweat was rolling down my forehead.  
"Hey Mary! Did you predict that you would be a screw up?" I ignored that. It was the same insult they used every day. They always called me Mary too, because they knew I disliked it so much. I didn't like it because there was another girl called Mary in the class and she was everything I despised. She would go around and act like her family were the richest people in the town and that she got everything she asked for, but I knew that was not true. Her family were no where near the richest people in the town, like my own, and she did not get everything she wanted.

I walked down the dirt path away from the school. I was used to ignoring the people around me because the majority of them only made fun of me. I took the next left to head towards my side of the town. It trailed through a clearing with a river on one side and a forest on the other. This was where they usually made their assaults. I was expecting it of course but there was no way of doing anything about it. I had studied it for hours in my head, during class, and there was no positive outcome for myself.

I fell to the ground, my knees hitting the dirt hard and the stones ripping through my tights. Mother would be angry when she found out I ruined another pair. Henry pulled at my hair like normal and looked down at me.  
"Did you predict this, Mary?"

I ignored him and pushed him off as I got back to my feet. He laughed at me and continued to taunt me. Eventually the girls began to join in, they picked up the small stones from beneath their feet and tried to see who could hit me first. Mary Elizabeth won. It landed right on my bare neck and scratched the skin as it bounced back. I forced the tears back and began to pick up my speed. I was faster them then, I was small and thinner. I had more stamina and could run longer than them. They stopped ten minutes away from my house. I continued and fell against the arch of the front door panting. I knocked on the door for my mother to let me in and her face fell when she saw me.  
"Mary Alice Brandon. What happened to you? You are covered in mud. You have ripped another pair of tights and you have grazes on your knees. Get upstairs and in that tub now."  
I followed her instructions and took my bath. The water on my knees stung as I washed the trails of blood seep away and mix in with the dirt in the water. I hugged my legs to my chest and bent my head forwards and let the tears fall from her cheeks.

I waited until the water went cold and tremors and chills shook my body before I stepped out. I drained the water and wrapped myself in a towel and then left for my bedroom. I looked at the night gown that was laying on my bed ready for me to wear. I sighed and slowly dropped the towel and pulled it on. I ignored my mothers calls for dinner and slipped between the sheets of my bed. It was a safe haven where I felt like the word couldn't harm me. I knew that the world would always harm me. I wasn't normal. I was just a girl with an extraordinary gift. Something that should set me outside from the world, not put me on a pedestal and ridicule me at every given moment. I may have been 10 but it didn't mean that I didn't think of a better life somewhere. I knew the worst was coming. I couldn't see it but I had this horrible, gut wrenching feeling, this worst was yet to come.


End file.
